What are we celebrating?

Sailing is so much more than just moving a boat through water. Navigation requires a series of skills, teamwork, and
knowledge of the elements ...

This is achieved by instilling a set of wholly positive values in order to ensure a
rewarding journey through life, from beginning to end.

And that is the main aim of our Association: To promote a love of sailing and all that it
represents.

Those of us who sail think we know it all and cannot even imagine what a few hundred years
ago, sailors were able to achieve with a boat and some sails.

Sailors, people, parents like us, with their fears, concerns and anxieties, but in the face
of adversity and against all odds, overcame challenges that today seem truly unattainable goals.

On the 6th September 1522, a ship named “VICTORIA” and 18
crew members returned to the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

This date marks a milestone in the history of navigation and humanity itself for
representing man’s first circumnavigation of the Earth.

Spanish Captain Juan Sebastian Elcano, along with the late pioneer of the
endeavour, Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan, disembarked proudly after having managed to travel thousands of nautical miles across the Atlantic, the Pacific, the coast of Oceania and
Asia to return bordering Africa to the starting point, after virtually three years of effort and sacrifice.

234 brave men left and only 18 returned, a fact which gives an idea of the spirit and
magnitude of the adventure.

An adventure that our Association aims to uphold on the approaching eve of the 500th
anniversary of the event.

We will work together with excitement and enthusiasm to deliver a program of events and
initiatives over the coming months which will reinforce international awareness not only of the history of sailors, but also of places and cultures that served as a springboard for the amazing
feat.

Andalusia and its points of departure will mark the beginning: Seville and Sanlúcar de Barrameda which,
through the waters of the Guadalquivir river and its inseparable Doñana National Park, will be the first to witness how a handful of men changed history, and so mark the beginning and the end of the
first voyage around the world.

If you’re an adventurer at heart, then embark with us on our endeavour and follow the spirit
of enterprise shown by Elcano and Magellan, and let’s enjoy this amazing adventure: the adventure of Circumnavigating the Globe!